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Detecting and describing intergenerational ambivalence in historical populations is a challenge because historians are dependent, for the most part, upon the evidence that has survived, rather than on evidence elicited by researchers from participants. In this respect, the distant past is more problematic than the recent past, of course; and studies of recent (but past) generations have been able successfully to integrate documentary, statistical, and interview material (Hareven, 1982; Macfarlane, 1977). Still, such studies cover only a short stretch of past time. The purpose of this essay is to review research on family history dealing with the past three or four centuries in order to see how the subject of intergenerational ambivalence has been dealt with, if at all, and how it might need to be incorporated into historical thinking when certain kinds of situations come under scrutiny.

The rise of special education in Norway dates back to the early 1880s. Originally, special education was strongly influenced by the Age of Enlightenment and religious and philanthropic commitment to disadvantaged children. This chapter describes the development of special education by examining five critical eras, namely, The Era of Philanthropy, the Era of Segregation – Protection for Society, The Era of Segregation-Best Interest of the Child, The Age of Integration – Social Critique and Normalization, and The Age of Inclusion. Also, included are sections on the origins of public education, teacher preparation aspects, approaches to special education, working with families, and important legislative acts that support the right to education for students with disabilities. The chapter also explores the tension that exists today between regular and special education due to Norwegian legislation that emphasizes that students that do not benefit from regular education have a right to special education. The chapter concludes with a discussion about the future challenge to special education, namely, the efficacy of special education.

The increasing number of people who search for and purchase gifts online underscores the need to better understand the process of searching for gifts online. This study explores online gift-searching with regard to the psychological characteristics of gift seekers and the benefits of searching. This study examines how gift-giving orientations (agape and reciprocity) influence the perceived benefits of searching (utilitarian and hedonic) in online gift-searching behaviour.

The conceptual framework was tested using a survey. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling.

The results show that agape positively influences both utilitarian and hedonic benefits, which in turn increase online gift-searching. Reciprocity does not affect utilitarian benefits but decreases hedonic benefits and thus causes a reduction in online gift-searching. The perceived benefit of searching fully mediates the relationship between gift-giving orientations and online gift-searching. Utilitarian benefits are the primary benefits that are sought by consumers who search for gifts online.

Previous research regarding online information searching has focused on searching for items for self-use. This study extends that research by focusing on gift giving. By analysing the mediating effects of both the utilitarian and hedonic benefits of searching, this study provides new insights into whether and how gift-giving orientations affect online gift-searching. Additionally this study offers guidelines for effectively managing online retail environments.

Much of human behaviour is viewed as a process, which begins with early childhood experience, and develops into later life emotions, values, beliefs, and behaviours. Described below, considerable interdisciplinary attention has been given to the role of childhood, and more specifically, to the relevance of different types of parental influence on children as they later become adults. Within marketing, selected scholarly consideration has been devoted to the roles of parents on their children's existing consumer behaviour. The unique contribution of this article is to examine the role of different types of parental influence on later adulthood shopping behaviours.

The article is based on a research project using survey data (N=628) and qualitative interviews (N=60) with young people and their parents belonging to the five largest ethnic minority groups in Denmark, along with the experiences of psychosocial services for minority young people. The theoretical framework is social psychological, combining theories of modernisation, family relations and effects of discrimination. The article examines interaction with the parents in relation to their intimate partnership formation and the dynamics of religious endogamy. Main findings are that parents may be either supportive or against the young people, contrary to the dominant discourses about intergenerational conflicts. The continued practice of religious endogamy is another finding. The article criticises the reductionistic dichotomy ‐ either own or parental choice ‐ and appeals for broader concepts which focus both on own choice and parental acceptance. The article also throws light on some strategic services dealing with the problems of ethnic minority young people in forming intimate partnerships in other countries. A model for psychosocial intervention is presented which directs attention to ageism and sexism, as well as racism, at personal, interpersonal and structural levels.

The basic unit of the family is the married couple who are brought together through various means, the internet being an additional medium. This study is an attempt to capture changes in the realm of family through a detailed analysis of the matrimonial websites in India from a sociological perspective. With the advent of the internet technology, it explores whether and how the internet as a new medium of spouse selection influences marriage choices and family dynamics during match-fixing. It seeks to unweave the individual–family–community dynamics in the context of changing gender norms. The findings of the study are based on mixed-methods through the use of both qualitative and quantitative data gathered from the website and personal interviews. These data were further strengthened through the walkthrough method and participant observation. The findings of this study reflect upon the prescriptive, restrictive and supportive role played by the family in the context of online spouse selection. It also documents resilience and change (in terms of family structure and norms) in the realm of the family in the context of changing matrimonial preferences.

David Morgan’s (2011) influential concept of ‘doing family’ has yet to be applied to the cultural shaping of fatherhood and emotions. Drawing from two case studies, of a Scottish and a Romanian father, the author reflects in this chapter on the interconnections between ‘doing family’ and ‘loving’, as types of relational and emotional activities which maintain family bonds despite intimate separations and work migration. These two case studies are taken from a larger, qualitative research project, which explored the experiences of involvement and love for 47 fathers in their personal lives. The specific case studies of Sergiu and Keith, marked by relational give-and-takes across different spaces, illuminate the contradictions of their emotional involvement in their close relationships to their children and ex-partners. For these two fathers, the process of ‘doing family’ after separations was a disjointed and renegotiated one. It mainly involved developing their emotional reflexivity as a response to their changing life circumstances. In this process, both fathers recount how they began reconfiguring their masculine identity from providing to establishing caring fathering. These changes occurred when the normative precepts of their personal lives were transformed due to the separations. Situations of emotional upheaval, movement and relocation were thus created. As their families were in motion, fathers mentioned instances of changing their communication strategies to express love in more visible ways to their children, directly constructing their ‘good fathering’ identity from renewed positions. Family separations in this context offered the potential to challenge the traditional father’s role.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether young adults who had a parent in prison while growing up in Sweden are disadvantaged in terms of parental support, school well-being and functioning, and socioemotional and/or behavioral problems, compared to young adults whose parents were not in prison when they were a child.

Retrospective self-report information about parental imprisonment and childhood and adulthood welfare was collected from 2,500 Swedish young adults as part of the RESUME project. Of these, 52 who had had a parent in prison during their childhood were compared to the young adults who had not had a parent in prison, by measuring differences concerning their family relations, school well-being, and well-being as adults, and the risk of some events occurring later in life.

Having had a parent in prison was significantly related to feeling less loved during childhood, and having less contact and support from both parents during adulthood, in comparison with other young adults. In school they experienced lower well-being and were more often placed in special education than other children. They were at greater risk of not attending higher education, of planning or attempting suicide, and of being hospitalized for mental health problems than the rest of the young adults.

Taking into consideration the complexity of childhood conditions and the limitations of retrospective data, prison, and social-services, professionals should pay special attention to the fact that a child has a parent in prison.

This is a unique study of young adults’ experiences of a childhood with parent in prison.

In the twenty-first century, the family has been turning towards a greater plurality of training paths, situations, family and parental arrangements. However, despite changes in legislation, values, representations and practices, the word family remains inexorably associated with the heterosexual bi-parental model. This paper aims to contribute to the knowledge of the family dynamics of non-heterosexual people, mainly concerning the process of transition to parenting, in relation to family changes in Portuguese society. To do so this study aims to analyze four in-depth interviews¹ with young adults, women and men who have a homoconjugality relationship and a project of parenting in mind.

Based on a qualitative methodology the study intends to discuss issues related to the challenge of heteronormativity, equality within the couple, projects and gender representations of parenthood and in particular what it means for the men and women interviewed, to be a father and to be a mother in a same sex couple and how they project themselves as fathers and mothers.

The study discusses all these issues always in relation to the biographical trajectories, the history and life as a couple and the structural and individual resources, such as school and professional qualifications. It also analyzes the main difficulties experienced in revealing their sexuality to the significant others and the difficulties / strategies they anticipate in relation to the parenting project.

The authors conclude that female interviewees show greater independence of a male figure in relation to their parental projects and anticipate less difficulty in their parental skills compared with the gay man interviewed.

To analyze the dynamics of parenting in same-sex couples, this study also points out to the need to construct a model of analysis capable of articulating structural factors, such as job insecurity and heteronormativity, biographies and individual resources and profiles of conjugal interactions.